I have really enjoyed watching the development of the Stealth Recon Scout (SRS) here on SH. A really different rifle coming out of design and into production is rare and when it does, it’s a time for celebration. It brings back some good memories and made me crack the vault in search of an old friend.
I’ve been around bullpups since I first came across a TKB-022PM5. Whereas the SRS variant serves a very different purpose, I can’t but think what Korobov would have thought seeing the SRS. I do not ever remember seeing a bolt action project and that is what makes this one so interesting and special. What will be equally interesting is seeing what happens next. I, for one, will be watching.
I thought I’d throw up another interesting U.S. bullpup here as a reference point of interest. It rarely gets a chance to be seen these days, what am I saying, it rarely got seen ever. It shares some similarities; it is in 7.62X51, was constructed for medium range personnel intervention and made it way through the system all the way up to a formal review by Fort Bragg. It did not make the cut and, in many ways, faded away.
Who is this man?
Readers here stand a better chance of answering that question than anywhere else on the web, and with good reason. It seems that 50% of the threads here appear to touch on his work one way of another. He is, of course, Gale McMillan of McMillan stocks. Gale in his prime, at his height, surrounded by his products. I have had this picture hanging behind my desk for so long I can’t remember where I got it, but it remains a favorite and I thought I would share it. In his hands is one of his most interesting and creative pieces. When asked to hold one of his rifles for this publicity shot, he didn’t hesitate, he chose this rifle, the AWC G2. Here we see one of the final, and undoubtedly the most creative, iterations of the venerable M14 whose stock would be attended to by the master himself.
From 1956 to when this photo was taken, there are those here at SH that perhaps came to know the M-14 by many names. Not long after Lt. Col. Frank Conway (Ret) first mounted a commercial Weaver K6 on to two M14s it began. The XM21, M-14E1, M14E2, USAMTU and a number of others came into being. Even today, the M-14 can be found fielded in the M-14SD SEM or M14ALCS or perhaps Gale’s own M-2A.
The work on Gale’s bullpup started as an effort between Gale and the Israelis. Having been given a huge amount of surplus M-14s, the Israelis had decided to find away to use at least some of them for a new Sniper rifle program designated the Sirkis M-36. The designers set about to build a fiberglass stocked bullpup version that set the M-14’s receiver close to the butt. Gales was the consultant that designed and delivered the stock components. The project went on to become the TCI/TEI M89SR, Gales stock was dropped. The program sparked the interest of Lynn McWilliams of AWC Systems, another name that SH readers will recognize. The year was 1990 and Gale once again stepped forward with a revised design and together, Lynn and Gale brought two new rifles to Fort Bragg for review. The rifles differed in their purpose, one a heavy barreled medium to long range tactical rifle (22” barrel), the other a lighter version (18.5” barrel). As one might imagine the stocks were all hand laid and magnificent. Lynn had worked out the scope mount, modifications to the operating rod and the trigger. Lynn also selected a modified brake designed from the HK91 for all G2A’s and a special compensator on the full auto version, the GFA. The trigger is a 1:1 ratio transfer through a flexible steel cable that completely matches the trigger pull of the standard 2-stage M-14 trigger, “take up” being able to be completely addressed from nada to normal. Anything the could/should be done to the trigger was done. By today’s standards it would be best described as period correct for a precision gas gun.
AWC also provided a suppressor made entirely of 304 and measured 1.5”X10.” A two point contact to assure concentricity was provided by having the unit slip over the barrel . Decibel measurements revealed that this suppressor drop the signature from 167 to 139 dB, a solid 28 dB drop for its day. Dry system, that was all there was.
Other variants of the G2 were to follow. Some things remained consistent. The rifles always sported the superb Krieger National Match barrel, perhaps the greatest of all M-14 barrel makers. Krieger takes full advantage of the single point cut method by fully contouring the externals of the barrel before beginning the internals. Unlike the M-14 GI contract NM barrels that are all broach cut in a single pass, only Krieger was left to deliver the ultimate barrel. Many passes to cut one groove, the best that could be had, some stay its still the case. Point or Broach, that debate still rages and should not take us off track here. What was of special concern was the raised nature of the optical platform. People, this was before the readily available scopes that we almost take for granted today. U.S. Optics vs. Leopold vs. S&B vs. Premier vs. NighForce, my goodness, what an embarrassment of riches. The grey hairs (or no hair) stare in wonder and amusement as the debate rages between the magnificent options that can be had today! When the AWC G2 was around there was only one or two scope in the whole world that could take the abuse the G2’s produced. Swarovski 6X42 or the robust 1.5 Cobra. Good scopes that could take the unusual G forces of being perched up on the G2’s mount, well, they just weren’t growing on trees then.
Here are some shots for you all. This is the final variant produced and the last one out of the shop. It is the only Panzer grey G2AA produced. Purchased right from Lynn. The very last of Gale’s stocks went into the last ten units, two in white, four in what would become dark woodland, three in black and one in Panzer Grey. Old iron. Bad photographer.
I would imagine that many here are now asking “well, how does it shoot?” or better yet “What happened at Fort Bragg?” Fair enough. The G2A with the final scope mount system seen above is a 1 MOA rifle. It was capable of more, but not in the way we judge rifles today. It seems that every one else I have ever met that still has one claims .5 MOA or better, I must not be doing my part. I’ll stick with 1 MOA and remember that back when Gorbachev was being put under house arrest and Marion Barry was being re-elected, that was considered fine accuracy for a .308 gas rifle that stood 36” tall and weighed 10 pounds. It was also expensive, with AWC charging the military and police a, back then, astonishing $2,800 a copy. If you wanted better performance, and Fort Bragg did, you did what one does today, you went with a bolt gun and got to ½ MOA at 1,000 meters. Nuff said. Still, if its just you and you’ll need to scramble through doorways and hallways to engage multiple targets at 400 meters that know your coming? I was just told “Nah! That’s what JDAM is for!”
P.S. – Now if you close that CAR stock down and your 7.62 22” barreled rifle is still shorter than that, well you just might be an AWC G2A.
Interested in building your own M-14 based bullpup?
http://www.shortrifles.com/
Endless photos of the world’s most interesting bullpups, enjoy this link:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=112162
Let the beatings begin!
